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Matthew Yglesias

Matthew Yglesias is a senior editor at the Center for American Progress Action Fund, a former Prospect staff writer, and the author of Heads in the Sand: How the Republicans Screw Up Foreign Policy and Foreign Policy Screws Up the Democrats.

Recent Articles

Penalty Kicks

Matthew YglesiasAug 24, 2004

Considering that he's the sort of man who's not above pretending to like Cheez Whiz in order to gain a fleeting political advantage, it should come as no surprise to learn that George W. Bush thinks of the Olympics less as a celebration of athleticism than as yet another opportunity for electioneering. Thus, while the unofficial Bush campaign was busy spreading lies and baseless innuendo about John Kerry's war record, the official campaign launched a new ad lauding the president's supposed success in spreading the blessings of freedom around the world.

It's His Party

Matthew YglesiasAug 24, 2004

I've sort of grown to like Bob Dole over the years, mostly because he's shown himself to be a genuinely funny guy, able to move beyond the sort of faux-earnest self-righteousness of the practicing politician ever since he lost the presidential race. That, combined with his age (81) and the fact that he was missing from the scene during the impeachment fracas of 1998, was enough to make me nostalgic for the guy. He seemed like the last of the old-school, pre-Gingrich Republicans.

Sense and Sensitivity

Matthew YglesiasAug 17, 2004

On August 5, speaking to the UNITY conference of minority journalists, John Kerry said, "I believe I can fight a more effective, more thoughtful, more strategic, more proactive, more sensitive war on terror that reaches out to other nations and brings them to our side and lives up to American values in history."

The Brains Thing

Matthew YglesiasAug 13, 2004

Remember the 2000 election? With the country enjoying a seemingly endless spell of peace and prosperity, and no apparent daunting challenges facing the next chief executive, the media were finally granted the chance to construct a narrative entirely around personalities. Al Gore, based on a handful of small exaggerations and his association with the occasionally sordid behavior of Bill Clinton, was said to have a character problem. George W. Bush, meanwhile, was haunted by a lack of experience and intelligence.

Pants on Fire

Matthew YglesiasAug 10, 2004

How does a candidate go about getting nearly a majority of the votes while advocating a tax program that will overwhelmingly benefit a tiny, super-wealthy elite? As the invaluable All The President's Spin, a new book from the editors of Spinsanity.org, ably documents, you mislead people. You say your plan will benefit all taxpayers when, in fact, the millions of workers who pay no federal income tax but do pay payroll tax get nothing at all. You say that under your plan "a single waitress supporting two children on an income of $22,000 ... will pay no income tax at all," when such a person already pays no income tax. You say your plan will dedicate 25 percent of the surplus to tax cuts when the real figure is 35 percent.

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